Kindred

Octavia Butler’s novel Kindred tells the story of a modern black woman, Dana, who goes back into the antebellum South. We follow Dana through all her hardships and struggles. In reading the novel, I had noticed the role of education. To have an educated slave was a threat to an owner. A slave who was educated could possibly write his or her own pass and head North (101). Consequently, an educated slave was more vulnerable to leave their owner. From a business point of view, losing a slave was like losing a commodity. In any kind of business, losing commodities meant also losing profit. Thus, I can see why Weylin prevented his slaves from learning to read and write. He wanted to keep his commodities and maintain his profit. Besides the business aspect, having a slave leave meant that other slaves would attempt to leave as well. Having a slave leave gave the others hope that they too could leave. Another implication of having educated slaves was that they could teach the others slaves and that would just cause more problems for the owner. Furthermore, discouraging slaves from learning seemed to be another technique just like using physical violence that would keep them in check.